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The Cruise--Details

I didn't include more details in the prior "The Cruise" post for two reasons. 1)  I didn't think anyone would be interested; and 2)  This trip didn't include much of the normal topics:  good beer, good coffee or John-style travel. But there are details, which may be useful to some people contemplating how such a trip is put together. On the first day of the trip, we drove three hours to pick up my mother in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  At 85, she isn't comfortable driving for long distances and hadn't flown for many years. We then drove 3 1/2 more hours to Chicago, where we checked into the Wyndham, where you can get a room that includes the cost of parking for up to 12 days.   We were up early on the hotel shuttle to O'Hare, where we then boarded the a non-stop American Airlines flight to New Orleans. Here, we checked into a Hampton Inn near the port.  My mother was pretty tired, so Julia and I went out for a Cajun dinner and live music.   Rememberi...

Inca Trail: Dead Woman's Pass

 Temperatures continued to drop as we climbed higher and higher.  It was time to put on the additional layers of clothing from our day packs.



Dead Woman's Pass has that name because the rocks resemble a dead woman in a reclining position.  As we climbed, all of us took turns looking for the dead woman, which also signified the end of the climbing.  So, of course, we saw dead women where there were none--at least not the official dead woman.

Dead woman?  Nope


Stairway to Dead Woman
Keep climbing

Keep climbing


Just a little more

Finally, we made it to the top, where we found the Dead Woman.


There were two guys on the top who had been watching us ascend for the last thirty minutes.  They were waiting for their friend (the guy with the food poisoning) who was behind us and hiking alongside  Freddy, P, and G.  We had been told to expect rain, wind, cold, and maybe snow at the pass, but the views and weather were actually spectacular for about thirty minutes.


Eventually, the rest of our party made it to the top for a group photo.


P told us that he was feeling much better.  Ain't nothing going to stop us now.  


Comments

Bill said…
Hard core. Seriously, hard core.
greg said…
I feel for you. I've had my butt kicked by steep, high altidude trails before and have ended up looking just like Julia more than once.
John said…
Julia rebounded quickly and knew that descending would be the challenging part for her knees.

All of us guys were feeling pretty cocky for making it through the hard core part of the trail. And as a veteran hiker, you know what happens when you start feeling cocky.

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